Leadbolt – new high eCPM mobile ad formats

The mobile ad network Leadbolt has been one of the most innovative companies in the mobile market over the last year, pioneering new types of high yielding mobile ad formats such as Notifications (appearing in the message bar), App Icon (installing on the home screen) and App walls (strips of apps, ads – the so called offer wall). This has been phenomenally successful for both advertisers and app developers. Advertisers have been benefiting from higher click throughs with the new formats and the ability to successfully promote services that might not be effectively marketed via more established mobile ad units such as banners. App Developers on the other hand have been rewarded with extremely high eCPMs. Experimenting early with some of the newer formats has been particularly lucrative for some publishers.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense that new types of mobile ad network are essential if the industry is going to grow. It simply isn’t sustainable to try and base mobile advertising on the limited range of ad types that predominantly exist today. With small screens mobile phones are not ideally suited to formats that may work well on desktop (e.g. banners). In addition, the very basis of the growth of the online display market has been cookies and the ability to do retargeting, behavioural targeting and keyword/ contextual targeting that is just not possible in the same way within the mobile app context. Whilst apps remain the main way that users access mobile services, mobile advertising is going to need to find new ways of integrating with games and applications, rather than using the models that might have worked on the fixed line web.

So, when you hear that Leadbolt have just launched a load of new ad types then it’s well worth listening up and moving fast. They announced last week that they were launching another couple of ad innovations:

In-App Alerts

Interstitial Skins

In-App Alerts

So In-App alerts are a new unit which provides a direct response format. In order to close the ad down, the user has to interact with it as it sits above the app. This can increase clicks and engagement significantly.

Custom Skins for Interstitials

Interstitials are a rapidly growing area of the mobile ad industry. They are particularly high performing for games applications. The ad is a screen pop up which is ideal for loading at the start of a game, between levels or during other events. The user is typically in a heightened state when they get the ad so it’s the perfect time to reach them. Leadbolt is one of the leaders in this new format and has done some research that shows that having interstitials which fit in with the theme of the game. This allows devs to customize the ad units in the colours of their game or app.

These ads are well worth checking out whether you’re an app developer looking to flex your eCPM or a media buyer seeking conversions. For more details head on over to Leadbolt